The Twilight Zone featuring The Loud House cast
by The 21st Century Pendragon
Summary: Now that I have a love story and a humor-based anthology, let us go for a horror anthology featuring the Loud House cast. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Twilight Zone.
1. Episode 1: A Loud Place

**There is a hidden realm beyond the knowledge and comprehension of the modern man – the one known as the fifth dimension. It is a dimension as immeasurable as the universe and as unpredictable as the future. No height nor width nor breadth can amount to it. It is the balance, the fulcrum between day and night, between surface and depth, between fact and fiction, and it rests between the limitations of man's knowledge and the vastness of the unknown. Horror and heroism will be tested in this dimension of imagination. It is an intriguing area we call** _ **The Twilight Zone**_ **.**

* * *

 **Episode #1:**

" **A Loud Place"**

The place is Royal Woods, Michigan. The time is in the middle of a rainy night. And the journey into the dark unknown that we are about to watch could be our journey.

At torrential rainfall, the flood drains are filled, and the downpour rattles the roofs of the simple residence of the Louds. When suddenly, a pod from the dark skies above sends hurtling within the earth's atmosphere and crashes in the yard of the Loud residence.

But inside the household, not a single occupant senses the impact that slightly affected the interiors.

However, the more observant offspring of the family, the 4-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lisa Loud, observes the unlikely impact that could have not been done by a simple lightning. From her room, she proceeds to the living room, where most of her family members are converged in front of the television unit. "Family, did you sense that trembling?"

"Lisa, you must have played with the nitro-glycerine again," Lori deduces.

"No, I swear. I am positive that there must have been a geological tremor right around the vicinity of our humble abode."

"Yeah, it's what we call 'thunder' or my body slam. Just calm down a notch," Lynn Jr. tells her.

"But I swear my sensory neurons sent up a signal that something is not right."

Hearing her anxiety ran out of the gate, the family patriarch, Lynn Loud Sr., takes Lisa and brings her back to her room. "Easy, Lisa Marie. You may be just worried or stressed out from your work. Let me take you back to your bed for a calm-down story."

"But father, I swear…"

"I know. All it needs is a little intervention."

As the father takes his daughter to her bed, the noise factor in this household has scaled to different heights. Each family member emits an amount of noise that would reach ten blocks of homes. But the heavy rains largely deter the sound vacuum. But inside, it is almost peaceful with an earpiece on each side.

But the noise escalates: Lori, Leni and Lynn Jr. tune in to their favorite TV program _The Dream Boat_ , Luna strums her electric guitar to rehearse, Luan goes on live-streaming from the attic, Lincoln tests his Ace Savvy action figures with built-in sound effects, Lola and Lana chase each other with the former in her pink mini-car and the latter covered in mud, and Lily is bawling as Rita, the matriarch, rocks her to sleep in her room. The only member not emitting any reasonable sound is the 7th of the Loud siblings, Lucy Loud, who is meditating on her bed.

Just as everyone is occupied in their own duties, the kitchen window suddenly breaks, unleashing the terror from the outside.

No one notices this.

However, hungry pangs hit Lynn's guts, prompting her to seek for food. "Oh, there it goes. Time for a midnight snack."

"It's still 8:00. How is it midnight?" Leni asks.

"I just like saying that," Lynn replies.

With that, she hits the kitchen towards the refrigerator. However, upon walking to the dishwasher, Lynn suddenly steps on broken glass. Slowly, she pans her eyes to the broken kitchen window, just glancing on the infinite darkness where the wind blows indefinitely. She just stares at it, reveling what could be beyond that little of a vast darkness.

But breaking her concentration is Lori, who is calling her, "Lynn, can you give us hot cocoa as well? It's literally in the fridge!"

Lynn cannot her them. Thus she asks, "Huh! What was that?!"

"Can you give us hot cocoa? It's in the fridge," Lori reiterates.

"What again?"

"Hot cocoa in the fridge. Just microwave them."

At this point, Lynn Jr. raises her voice aloud, "What was that? DID YOU SAY HOT COCOA?"

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" And just like that, she is taken above by an otherworldly arm with savage claws. But the thunder rolls in along as Lynn screams at the top of her lungs.

* * *

Upstairs, Lisa is undeterred at her father giving her a bedtime story. Her attention is still at the mysterious tremor from before. She is compelled to investigate for the remainder of the night. But her patriarch insists being out to rest.

Because of that, she interrupts, "Sorry to do this father but I need to get back to investigation."

"Lisa, don't you wanna know what happened to the Country Mouse? It's a good story."

"The mice in that story didn't do anything because they were cowards!"

"Woah, how dare you judged this story you haven't read before?"

"Please father. It was a judicial requirement for my kindergarten curriculum that was carried with pressure from the instructors. But the point is, father, I have serious evidence that an otherworldly presence has struck the vicinity."

* * *

Back to Lynn's situation, Leni proceeds to the kitchen to check on her sister. "Lynn, where's our cocoa? Lynn? Lynn?"

Suddenly, two mugs fall from the ceiling, leading her to assume that those are their mugs.

Alarmed, Leni shifts her eyes above to see the terror that lurked in their kitchen ceiling – a monster beyond imagination, devouring Lynn Loud Jr. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Lori hears her screams. And annoyed, she checks her sister out. "Leni, what's with all the screaming in the kitchen?" To her utter shock, the monster turns to her after devouring Leni. The creature is subterranean-like in form. Its skin is slimy and flesh-covered. It has no eyes. It is humanoid in form but quadruped in posture. And its huge emphasis on its ears makes it its most sensitive organ.

The creature just lurks at Lori, waiting for any movement that will trigger it for kill. And suddenly, she accidentally drops her phone to the floor, activating a ringtone.

Meanwhile, Lola and Lana return from upstairs on time to witness their sister and the creature. With no hesitation, the creature lunges on Lori, bringing horror to their faces.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Lola screams, triggering for the creature to lunge above her and presumably devour her.

Lana tries to escape back upstairs as the rest of the family (sans Lynn Sr. and Lisa) are disturbed by the commotion downstairs.

"Lana, what's going on?" Lincoln asks her. Her sisters then follow it up with more hubbubs.

Lana on the other hand senses the rains have stopped, signaling for more noise within the house to attract the creature. She is not sure about the monster's sensitivity to sound. But she is aware that other animals are triggered by noise. Thus, with no choice, she warns them loudly, "GUYS, QUIET!"

And just like that, the monster takes Lana by the jaws and swallows her a whole.

Lincoln, Luna, Luan and Lucy are the ones to witness this dreadfulness, prompting them to cover their mouths and hold firm the objects that trigger sound, like Luna's electric guitar.

The creature then walks around the hall. Lurking and lurking on every corner, it waits to be drawn to a source of sound everywhere it goes.

* * *

For a while, after she puts her baby to sleep, Rita carries Lily back to her room when she suddenly sees the creature, prompting her to shield Lily from it. She presumably overheard Lana's warning.

Not wanting to generate more sounds upon her walking, Rita retrieves baking soda from the kitchen and create a path in front of her. She straps in a baby carrier for Lily and slowly walks upstairs. However, the Loud matriarch accidentally steps on an exposed nail that drops her to the floor.

The monster hears this and crawls back downstairs.

Lynn Sr. witness this and signals to Lisa, " _Monster. Downstairs._ "

" _Who or what might be downstairs?_ " Lisa responds in ASL.

Confused, he gestures, " _I don't know what you mean._ "

Lisa then reiterates to him through writing on a mini-whiteboard. " _Who's downstairs, father?_ "

Lynn Sr. then recalls comprehensively who might be downstairs. But there are two people whom he suddenly grows concerned about. " _Your mom and Lily._ "

Lisa wants to gasp but she covers her mouth. " _What must we do?_ "

Lynn Sr. then gestures, " _I idea have._ "

With that, the Loud family patriarch brings his 4-year-old with her other sisters. Lynn Sr. gathers them and have them wait near the staircase. He then asks for Luna's help on creating a diversion. Surely and quietly, they bring down one of Luna's amplifiers and place it on the yard. He then plugs in a jack to his phone and remains it there, setting the trap.

However, in dire circumstance, Rita is bleeding heavily on her left foot that she is on the verge of screaming. She rests in the bathtub of their private bathroom. Her mumbling that turns to sobbing slowly attracts the monster as it tries to receive a clearer sound from her. It opens its auditory organs, as soon as Rita's pain digs deep.

Slowly and slowly, the monster lurks close from the curtains and aims for her.

Second by second by second, Rita has no choice but…to…scream. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

But help comes in the way when Lynn Sr. makes his phone ring with a Nokia ringtone.

The monster gets annoyed and drawn to it, prompting it to sprint after the source and devour it. As they witness it to escape, Luna and Lynn Sr. rescue Rita and Lily, and carry them away from the scene. They subsequently bring her to the rest of the group. Lincoln and Lucy hurriedly tend to her wounds as blood continually gushes.

Lynn Sr. tries to calm his loving wife down. "Shhhhhh…"

But Rita suddenly yelps when alcohol is poured to her wounds. "AHHHHHHHHHH!"

The monster quickly hears this and chases after them.

Hearing the commotion, Lisa, on the spot, devises an idea and rapidly retrieves a bottle of nitro-glycerin to throw it to the monster. However, realizing it is insufficient to simply throw a bottle of sensitive mixture, Lisa prepares to run towards the monster.

Lynn Sr. gestures, " _Do it don't, Lisa!_ "

" _I have to, father!_ " she hand signals him.

But as she is about to sprint towards the monster, her father immediately takes the bottle and prepares to strike at the monster. Before he does, he lovingly tells Lisa, " _I have always loved_ _you._ " At the top of his lungs, he screams directly at the monster and…

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!

The monster is gone but the siblings' father is as well.

Lisa runs to the remains of them both and drowns in despair. She wants to pour out her composure but she tries to seek peace over it.

Later on, Lincoln embraces her over the grief. Luan and Luna retrieve them both. And they all take a moment of silence over what was lost as the rain falls again.

It is then that Lisa finds peace. And she finally wakes up.

* * *

"LISA! LISA LOUD!" her kindergarten tries to wake her up. "LISA!"

Only at the third warning does Lisa wake up. "Sorry, ma'am. I just had a peculiar subconscious delusion that eerily resembles a Hollywood movie I watched."

"Good." Her teacher then becomes comforting this time. "Tell me, Lisa. You have been thinking about this all day. Now, do you now understand why you need to quiet down even if others won't? You don't need a megaphone to do so."

With no hesitation, Lisa nods her head.

Her teacher then comforts her by her hair. "It's okay, Lisa. We forgive you. You just need to understand a lot of lessons. Let's have lunch."

As they walk to the canteen, Lisa looks behind to see the same monster lurking at her. She simply smiles.

* * *

 **The sound of silence: the noise that no one notices. White noise that stings the ear, as much as the roaring of a lion and the growling of a hydra. Out there, in the vastness of space, no absolute peace is found. But where there is noise in the fray, there is peace. And rest assured that peace is offered freely, where it is never trapped in** _ **The Twilight Zone**_ **.**


	2. Episode 2: To Serve Loud

**Passions – they lift us up, no matter how much we restrain them. They define who we are, see the world in a broader perspective, and make us alive. Or so we though. Little to control enables the feeble follower to become the fool to this game where no one plays. How fate gets intertwined to an aspiring musician with a good family and brighter future. Only to become the latest subject to a docile experiment of passions. Art or science, passions can take us away to an opulent realm. If not, let us expect to be transported to…** _ **The Twilight Zone**_ **.**

* * *

 **Episode #2:**

" **To Serve Loud"**

With enthusiasm at every vein of her body, the rocker aspirant Luna switches on the stereo system in the living room and hooks her amplifier cord to her electric guitar, preparing for another moment to jam. With just a strum to the string, she gets her rock on!

She jams along with a concert video she turns on from the flat screen television. Gladly, there is no one to hear the ear-piercing rocker shreds that Luna sends to blocks and blocks around the neighborhood. Or so she thinks.

Her roommate Luan suddenly wakes up from the noise that came. She puts on her woolen slippers and races down to check on the distracting commotion.

"Luna! Luna! Luna!" The 14-year-old aspiring comedienne tries to coax her sister. But the loud music is enough to overpower her voice.

This forces Luan to lift the left earphone off her and call her out of it. "Would you mind, Luna?!"

Finally noticing this, Luna pauses the video and tones down her amp. "Dude, sorry to bother ya."

"Well ya better keep it down! Someone is trying to sleep!"

"Sheesh, sorry about that. I just can't help fanning about it now!"

"What? What are you fanning about?"

"This." Luna then brings out a chart that is pasted with magazine cutouts and other paper-cut designs. "May I present Spacefleet. The coolest rock band since Smooch! The definition of indie! Rock! And electro!" She can help but squirm at the top of her lungs. "I just can't wait to see them in concert right here in Royal Woods! For two solid days!" At the top of her fandom, the 15-year-old cannot help but squirm in delight, much to Luan's expense.

"Well, that's great. Now, can you PLEASE lower it down so I can sleep?" she berates her.

"Will try my best, dude. But don't you worry, from I am about to shred all the way!" Just as Luna shreds her guitar, the vibration slams Luan to the wall. "Oh sorry about that."

But the poor comedienne feels the impact by the wooden wall. Not wanting for that happen again, she gives in to Luna's over-enthusiasm. "Look Luna, I get it. But can you please don't be loud for Pete's sake. I'll do anything, just so you can quiet down," she requests in a groaning tone.

"Do you want to come with me to the concert tomorrow? I have an extra ticket."

"Sure. Anything. Just please be quiet for just one night. Please?"

"Okay. Sure dude…"

"Good." With that promise, Luan walks back to her bed like a zombie. But she suddenly hears another guitar riff from her sister. "I said quiet!"

"Sorry. Adjusting the strings," Luna apologizes.

Begrudgingly, Luan marches back to her room.

* * *

On the night of the concert, Luna and Luan arrive at the venue via an Uber. The rocker is at her best getup, with her face painted and her outfit in the same vein as the otherworldly band. Yet, the comedienne is at her simplest, with no over-the-top fashion. She is almost mystified at the attendees of the concert who are dressed like dancers from musicals like _Starlight Express_ and _Xanadu_. While for others, they are dressed casually.

Luan feels rather out-of-place with the outlandish costumes from such devotees.

Luna senses this from her eyes. "Yo dude. It's fine. You're gonna really love their songs."

"It's just that, you know, I am not into this music. Where's Sam and that other guy anyway?"

"Sam's on a trip. While the guys are performing at The Bay tonight. So alone again, naturally."

"Oh, so lucky me…"

Luna then wraps her arms around her shoulders to console her. "I get the feeling, dude. Sooner once you get into their music, you will surely love them. Cheer up now!"

"Well, that sure is sound. Hehe." But Luan keeps that joke as an afterthought to herself. She finds this as a coping mechanism from feeling out-of-place from a horde of rock-and-roll fans. "

The concert begins with opening acts from indie bands whose sound is akin to styles from MGMT to Devo. The concertgoers are mesmerized with the accompanied lights-and-sounds show from the background. Luna too is easily mesmerized.

Finally, the main attraction of the concert is coming up.

The main vocalist with the same presence that Freddie Mercury tends to do walks to the front of the stage as artificial smoke and green strobe lights overpower the structure.

" _OHHOHHHHHHHHHHH!_ " he hoots.

The crowd responds, " _OHHOHHHHHHHHHHH!_ "

" _OHHAHH!_ "

" _OHHAHH!_ "

" _OHHOHHHHHHHHHHH!_ "

" _OHHOHHHHHHHHHHH!_ "

" _OHHAHH!_ "

" _OHHAHH!_ "

Luan is rather mum as she witnesses all the concertgoers act all cultish with their unison chants and lifted arms.

Then in full bombast, Spacefleet performs their first number a la "We Will Rock You" entitled "We Will Serve You".

Once more, as the vocalist named H. G. Mars leads the people to the song, he belches, " _We will serve you! We will serve!_ "

The crowd responds, " _We will serve you! We will serve!_ "

Feeling unnerved, Luan nudges her older sister's shoulder. "Luna, I'm not sure about this." But she clarifies to her. "No, really. I'm feeling sick."

Just by that motion sickness, Luna is persuaded to take Luan to the food stalls at the back to let her rest. As she waits her sister finishing on throwing up, Luna notices Spacefleet merchandise that she learns that fans buy religiously.

The rocker then sneaks off for a while to check out the merch, which ranges from shirts to mugs, from posters to jackets and from plastic containers to duct tape. But the one that catches her attention is a hardbound autobiography of the band itself.

"How much is for the book, dude?" Luna asks the cashier.

"$59.99," he answers.

"Awww…"

"But dude, this book is worth it. It has all the concession you need to know about Spacefleet, including a glossy copy of their sheet music."

Those words are sweet music to her eyes. She cannot help but be speechless about it. "Sheeesheeesheeesheeesheee…"

"Right on. And not only that, you'll be the selected few to join a promo wherein you will join the band in their Otherworldly rock tour."

"NO WAY…"

"Just $50. And who knows? Maybe you might win."

Luna cannot help but squirm on the inside. Much like Mick Swagger, she always wanted to join a rock band on tour. Thus, this marks as her chance to do so. She checks her wallet to see she only has $24 dollars left, reserved for her and Luan's bus fare home. She then checks all of her pockets, to no avail. The 15-year-old is completely penniless.

Right on time, Luan walks to her, still dizzy, after hurling. "Okay! Maybe not into crowd music."

Luna immediately shares her sister about her find. "Luan, you got any dough with you?"

The younger sister answers woozily, "Why? Do you knead it? Hehehe. Get it?"

"I'm serious, dude! This is my chance to join Spacefleet on tour!"

Even as she somehow acts like a rider from rollercoaster, Luan retains her senses. "Look Luna, you took too far, just to show me how much you love Spacefleet. And now, you're gonna make me help you be with them?"

"Dude, you know me, right? I feel that rock-and-roll blood flowing in me. And it's burning and burning. And what else can I do?"

"Set it aside?"

"Come on, dude! Please!"

Luan just grumbles at her to make a stand.

Not wanting to back down, Luna doubles down on reaching out a deal to her dear sister. "Please sis! Okay, after this, I promise not to let you hear any loud music from me. Pinky swear!"

Luan does not want to ponder it. But she feels her bigger sister's eagerness to reach out to her. "Do you swear that?"

"I promise, sis! To the rest of family. To my class. To the rest of the world, I promise!" Luna solidifies that vow by raising her right hand.

This is enough to persuade a hard-hearted but reasonable Luan. "Just don't make any ear-piercing noise." Finally, she hands Luna a $100 bill.

"Thanks Luan!" Luna thanks her with a big embrace before buying merchandise that costs around that amount.

Later on, after taking a break from squeezing in the crowd, Luna hands her souvenirs to Luan and rushes to their spot from before.

Luan tries to catch up with Luna, but the Spacefleet book falls from her hand. She picks up to see it flipped to the section where Spacefleet placed their sheet music. There, she sees rather strange symbols imprinted from every note. Following through, Luan spots a Fibonacci sequence (though she is not knowledgeable what the term is) from the notes.

Because of that, she calls up Lisa, who immediately answers her, " _I assume that you called, your eardrums have yet to attain auditory dispel from the deafening music._ "

"No, it's not that," Luan responds, "Luna made me buy this book about that rock band…for her. Can't you believe it?"

" _If I were in your unfortunate position, I would readily decline her._ "

"But that's not the point. Do you still remember about doing that seminar about space language?"

" _Where I got to share my indeterminate knowledge of space with aloof conspiracy theories? Yes._ "

"Good. The book has these weird symbols. Can you interpret them for me?"

" _Let me see about it. Got any picture of it?_ "

"Sure." Luan then takes a snapshot showing the sheet music. "Just call me when you got anything."

It is then that Spacefleet performs their next performance that easily resembles the music video from "Radio Gaga" with the white space outfits that the band wears, the gigantic clock from the set design, the crowd chanting alongside the band and clips from Fritz Lang's _Metropolis_ being flashed on the LED screens. Even the song is akin to "Radio Gaga" through its lyrics: " _Don't you listen, radio channels! Video and YouTube! Radio channels!_ "

Luan returns to Luna, who greets her with open arms. She rather not see the not-so subtle subtext of the song but remains unnerved when she watches an almost submissive crowd, celebrating to an otherworldly band. But not wanting to shame anyone else, especially Luna, she simply lends an insincere smile and follows along minimally.

After ten more songs, H. G. Mars gives an important announcement: "My dear guests, thank you for all of this. You made all these possible. And your spirits lift us up. And we can lift you up too. As you know, we have an ongoing contest tonight. Whoever purchases our latest book gets to have a chance to join us for our Otherworldly Rock tour! Now, we shall announce our 15 lucky winners!"

The crowd goes wild as the winners announced and are asked to climb onstage. Once he revealed the other fourteen winners, Mars finally reveals the last winner. "And finally, our last winner to join us at tour! It is…LUNA LOUD!"

As soon as she hears her name being announced by H. G. freaking Mars, Luna cannot help but scream at the top of her lungs. Like the wild fan that she is, she rushes onstage, claims her winning certificate and embraces Mars as the crowd goes wild.

"Congrats to our winning fans here! You shall joins us for our tour now! Good night Royal Woods!"

Right behind, as the crowd cheers, Luan simply claps her hand, being proud to her sister. Luna spots her from the crowd, to which Luan just lends a crooked smile at her. However, the guards guide Luna to the backstage to prepare to join the band.

Suddenly, Lisa dials Luan at the moment.

Luan quickly answers the phone, prompting Lisa to reveal the horrifying truth to her. She is in utterly disbelief that such a shocking discovery would revolve around a passion that Luna defines herself in. Nevertheless, she quickly rushes to Luna.

* * *

After the concert, the fifteen winners are guided to Spacefleet's tour bus. Each is excited to meet and bond with band formally, including Luna.

But as the latter is about to board the bus, Luan catches up. But the guards in the area blocks her way. "Luna! Luna! Luna!"

"Luan?" Luna overhears her sister that she looks at her from behind. "Luan!"

"LUNA! Don't go! Please! Luna! We need you!" The bouncers hold her back, but that does not stop Luan from revealing the truth. "The book you bought…It's a cookbook! IT'S A COOKBOOK!"

"A cookbook? What?"

That significant keyword triggers for the guard to push Luna to the bus and for another guard in the bus to lock up Luna to a plastic chair with laser restraints on her hands and her legs, along with the other recipients of the award.

The rest of the band's guards enter the bus before the vehicle exits the premises and then accelerates in light speed. The bus soon transforms into a spacecraft that exits the Earth's atmosphere and moves toward a looming mothership.

As it turns out, Spacefleet is, indeed, literally a spacefleet housing otherworldly creatures.

But back to Luna's bus-turned-spacecraft, the band confronts but immediately morphs into bloodthirsty Xenomorph-like aliens. It is nearly a traumatizing feat to see someone's favorite rock band to actually transform into deadly alien creatures.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The passengers, with the exception of a traumatized Luna, scream at the top of their lungs, which causes the aliens to spew out gapers that puncture through the throats of the humans.

Luna writhes in horror to see people actually die in front of her.

But the head alien, who took on the form of H. G. Mars, speaks to Luna in his native dialect, " _Fear not woman. Dead souls not them. Functions still working. But you, be captive and be prepared._ "

At that prospect, Luna is dragged out of the tiny fleet and is locked up in a cellar. The cellar, radiant in bright lights, only contains a medium-sized bed, a rhombus-shaped table and a door shaft where the food is delivered.

Just as she is shoved to her quarters, she looks at the aliens with disgust. "Can't believe you dragged me away to this. You tricked me!"

The main alien, now in its H. G. Mars disguise, delivers food to Luna. "Human, you must be hungry. Help yourself with some food."

"I ain't hungry after what you just did!"

"But you must. It would be a waste if you maintain your thin physique. Nourish yourself, if you will." Just like that, the aliens leave Luna to her white, secluded cell from miles away.

Right now, she can sense the comeuppance of her total submission to a cult following that turned out to be space invaders. It is as if "Otherworldly Rock" or "Spacefleet" has not got that away.

Hopefully with a shred of hope, she contemplates to the readers of this otherworldly tale, "If you are out there, if you can hear me, let you so not be too stubborn like me. Get back to the way we once belong."

* * *

 **Passions – they lift us up, or so our humanity. They take us away, sometimes for a better purpose in this universe. It is never certain where our passions will take us, other than deceive into an inescapable realm. But what better for the creature of humanity to know where to rightfully designate our passions. Or else, let his soul find ceaseless peace in, or fleeting solace, in** _ **The Twilight Zone**_ **.**


	3. Episode 3: Ready Player None

**There is a realm untouched by man and belittled by humanity known as the Fifth Dimension. Fact or fiction, reality or fantasy, authenticity or fakery – they all come together in this limbo destination. It takes the impudence of the average human being to survive** _ **The Twilight Zone**_ **.**

 **The time is now, and the place is a present-day world. A cautionary tale of an innocent soul immersed to a fantasy world where time is limitless, place is limitless, life is limitless. But if a soul has limits, he can never tell for he chose to be gone astray in a virtual world created by man. There are no good or bad players in such a world; only abusers who overlook the boundaries between their fantasy and their reality. We know what causes pain but endures; we know what causes pleasure but injures. And their fate is left at** _ **The Twilight Zone**_ **.**

* * *

 **Episode #3**

" **Ready Player None"**

In a faithful day in suburban Royal Woods, the ever eager Lincoln Loud opens up a package addressed to him in manila paper. He tears the paper wrapping to unveil its priced offering: a virtual reality visor from the Gregarious Simulation Systems. He cannot help but feel excited about his prize after winning it from a sweepstakes at his MMORPG.

"This is it," he utters. He switches up his phone to document the moment he is about to be logged in the growing virtual program known as the Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation or OASIS. "Okay, ladies and gents who are online right now. You are about to witness my first moments in the OASIS. I heard that logging in for the first time, it's not much of a hassle. Basically, I created my skin prior to this in my OASIS account. So, let us dive in to the wondrous world of the OASIS."

Before he does so, to fully record the experience, Lincoln fires up his computer, plugs an elongated jack to the visor to connect to his PC and opens a screen recording program to document the entire walkthrough in the OASIS. He then wears his gloves, his kneepads and his boots to suit up for action. And in one momentous occasion, Lincoln wears his visor.

The program starts with a login page. He types in his login credentials, using a specialized clicker that types. In one click to the login button, the text shows: READY PLAYER ONE.

His eyes catches the visuals of being sucked to a _Doctor Who_ portal. His avatar, whom he named L1nked1n, is transported to one of the primary planets in the OASIS, Ludus. L1nked1n is practically resembling the real-life Lincoln. The difference is the texture of his skin, the terracotta-like costume draped in orange and his spiky hair that shouts out to Goku from _Dragonball_.

"It's showtime."

After entering the virtual mega-school, one of the many mega-schools in the Planet Ludus, L1nked1n finds his locker. Since he is underage, his avatar is designated to the Planet Ludus before exploring other planets in the OASIS.

To do so, he must score A's in the classes he will take. His grades accumulate to his avatar credits, one of the currencies in the OASIS. He learns all of this facts from a school orientation which L1nked1n eventually skips to get ahead from the rest of the newbies in Ludus.

"Okay, that helped somehow. Well, nothing to lose."

Within one sweep, L1nked1n lines up the classes he must take. With no regard in time, he jumps from one class to another and scores up average-to-highly satisfactory grades. It is halfway to match credit points to go to any of the gamer planets. His biggest bet could be Planet Middletown where a life-size Dungeons & Dragons game is set. But nothing can top Planet Doom, the most dangerous and chaotic planet in the OASIS. It is now L1nked1n's target to dominate.

"Twenty-five classes to go, Planet Doom."

* * *

Reality check for Lincoln, it has been four hours since he put on the visor and logged in to the OASIS. He started at 8:00 AM and lasted long since then. Luckily, it is a Saturday. But that does not stop his mother from intruding to his room after knocking the door several times.

"Lincoln! Oh!" Rita Loud encounters her son mimicking a knight swathing sword as his eyes are attentive to his game. "Lincoln? Lincoln?"

He does not respond to her.

"Lincoln, I'm going to the mall. You want to come?"

He does not respond to her. He just stays focused on his virtual reality.

"Lincoln? Lincoln?"

He does not respond to her.

Seeing no avail, Rita just simply walks out. "Okay, I'll be back home right away. Just gather the trash and throw it outside. Lunch is on the table."

He does not respond to her.

"Okay…" Uneasily, Rita walks out of his room.

Six hours later, Lincoln is still on his visor, finishing his 18th game in Ludus. To acquire the needed credits to get to Planet Doom, he needs to complete thirty preliminary games in his first digital planet. It is a mixed bag of how he dealt with the games. Sometimes, he wins instantly; sometimes, he needs to take several tries to ace them. But primarily, they are costing his personal time.

Rita returns to his room, wanting for her son to try a smidge of her new dish. "Lincoln, you have to try this chicken casserole I made. I wanted to perfect it, the same way your father does. Want to taste?" She reaches out her spoon to him.

However, he does not respond to her. He simply grunts while catching up with his current game: a life-size table football.

That does not stop Rita from persuading him. "Lincoln, you said you want chicken casserole. I made it with such savory sauce. You should try it."

However, he does not respond to her.

"Lincoln, have a taste while it's not cold."

However, he does not respond to her.

"Okay…I'll just leave you some." She then walks out of his room, feeling despondent.

The only moment where he has to take off his visor is for a bathroom break. Otherwise, Lincoln is entirely hooked in the OASIS. He even has visor on when he is sleeping.

The next day, Sunday morning at 6:36 AM, Lincoln plugs in his computer to continue the streaming, preps his gear and starts his 25th game in Planet Ludus: a medieval castle-themed labyrinth game, akin to _Choose Your Own Adventure_. With no hesitation, he starts the game, which has been dubbed by OASIS users as "difficult to accomplish".

In a matter of patterns, Rita shows up to his room with a heavy basket of laundry. She opens his door and knocks on it. "Lincoln, glad you're awake. Can you be of help and help carry the laundry? Lincoln? Lincoln!"

But he does not respond to her.

It almost comes to a point where Rita needed to enunciate her thoughts. "Lincoln! I. Need. Help. With the. Laundry. Please! Your father is busy washing his car."

But he does not respond to her.

Not wanting to go further, Rita slides off the visor from his eyes.

"What the? Mom!"

"I've been calling you so many times."

"Mom, don't cut me out of the game like that."

"I know. Sorry. But I need help with the laundry. Then you can get back to your game. Okay?"

"Okay fine." With that, Lincoln begrudgingly takes the laundry basket down to the basement.

Though she is satisfied with her son following her orders, Rita grows concerned at Lincoln's sudden change of attitude.

After finishing the laundry, a very eager Lincoln races back to his room.

But Rita stops him. "Lincoln, I've seen that you stayed so long in that…virtual reality of yours."

"Mom, it's nothing. There's just something really important that I need to finish."

"So is your responsibility. I am just warning you not to stay so long in your games. Okay?"

"Okay, okay. Yes mom. I get it. Don't worry. I won't stay long anymore."

"Are you sure?"

"Promise."

But she wants to give her son a chance, Rita keeps her reservations. "Be sure about it, young man. I am watching you."

"Cool."

But before he leaves, Rita stops him again, "Stop right there. Where do you think you're going?"

"My…my game?" Lincoln answers hesitantly.

"Lincoln, it's Sunday, remember? We have church and lunch."

"Mom, it will just be quick. I promise."

Sure enough, even though he is in his Sunday's best, Lincoln still places his VR gear over it and continues his 25th game from 7:00 to 10:13 AM. His gameplay still consisted of retries and respawns until he aced it.

It is at this point that Rita has had enough of Lincoln's sudden habit, and she swipes the visor of his head. "What the?! Mom!"

"Lincoln, ever since you wore this thing in your face, you're ignoring your responsibilities."

"Mom, it's just a little while."

"You're going to have you little while later on. For now, we go to church."

Lincoln then whines, "But mom!"

"Lincoln!"

With that kind of confrontation, Lincoln begrudgingly marches to the van where his sisters and his dad are waiting for them. Rita then places the visor to her bag. In return, she feels the anger from her son.

Throughout their Sunday habit, the aloof 11-year-old keeps himself with fantasies of what he will see in the upcoming games and finally to Planet Doom. This places him as anti-social towards his sisters. His mom grows increasingly concerned that she does not see her son being himself.

As they return home, Rita returns Lincoln's visor, prompting him to quickly start up his gear and continue his game. It takes seven more hours to complete the 25th game to the 29th game towards the goal.

For the next day, Lincoln decides to skip school to finish the 30th game, the hardest of the bunch, which is a battle strategy game reenacting the Battle of the Bastards, with additional side quests.

His mother notices him still at home. "Lincoln, you're not at school? What are you doing?!"

"You know nothing, Snow!" he exclaims while plugged in to the game.

This is now the point where Rita goes serious. "Okay Lincoln! That's enough!" She again confiscates his visor.

"Mom, give it back! I'm down to my last game."

"Last game or not, why aren't you in school?!"

"Mom, like I said, I'm doing something important."

"Okay, is this more important than school?"

Lincoln then becomes speechless.

"You can't turn away from your duties, Lincoln. Go to school now. In the meantime, you can't play anymore." She then locks up the visor to a vault in her and Lynn Sr.'s bedroom. Lincoln does not see the entire vault, only helplessly witnesses his mother storing up the thing he wanted. "Go to school now!"

"Fine Rita!"

Rita is deeply offended at her son's retaliation as she witnesses him walk out from her. Secretly, with no one inside the house, she weeps.

* * *

But back on the uncharacteristic Lincoln, seeing that his mother is not following him, he decides to sneak in to the backyard and climb to his parents' room to retrieve his visor. Luckily he has a metal detector app on his phone and stethoscope for the given situation.

He skims on the floorboard of his parents' room, until his phone gives a signal that detects a heavy metal ware. He lifts up the floorboard to reveal the vault on the floor. "Jackpot!"

Lincoln suddenly hears footsteps coming to the bedroom. Quickly, he guesses the code to the vault. In several twists and turns, he successfully unlocks it and takes the visor.

But when is about to escape the house, Lincoln stops. He then thinks to himself. "Hopefully time can give me the privilege to finish the game till Planet Doom. What if it did?"

Lincoln instantly recalls Lisa's time-constraining devices and realizes that she installed in one in her bunker. Thus, he quickly uncovers the door to the bunker to see exactly what he needed: a control switch that allows any range of time that only the bunker will cover. Thus, one second on real time can equate to two weeks (the maximum number of days) in the bunker.

The 11-year-old swiftly takes his VR suit, his laptop, his bag and several snacks. He then sets the time to five days and powers it up. "Here goes nothing." At that notice, Lincoln jumps inside the bunker and locks himself up from outside.

"Well, at least I get to learn a lot of neat stuff in the OASIS. Let's plug in!" With that, Lincoln switches to his avatar L1nked1n.

The brave avatar takes a lot of fun fighting whitewalkers and opposing armies all at once. Lincoln is so thrilled to be immersed in the virtual world.

However, the time constrainer switch suddenly shuts off in a whim, turning the bunker's scope to real time. Yet, L1nked1n keeps going and going till he reaches Planet Doom.

* * *

Five days go by…

After exploring just one-sixty-fourth of Planet Doom, Lincoln returns to the real world. "Okay, next time, I'm bringing the gang."

But as he returns, he notices ash and ember falling from the sky. The clouds are draped in crimson hue. The surroundings are laid in ruins. And most of all, his house is wiped out.

"Hello? Hello!"

"Mom! Dad! Lori! Leni! Luna! Luan! Lynn! Lucy! Lola! Lana! Lisa! Lily!" Lincoln calls for anyone to answer, to no avail.

He walks on the remains of his house. And walking to what was once his kitchen, he sees a microwave oven. He opens it to see his mother's dish: chicken casserole.

It is then that he realized that his family and everyone else around have been by a nuclear disaster from the last five days. Royal Woods is left in apocalyptic ruin.

With no one around and with only him carrying the burden of his mistake, Lincoln breaks down, holding the casserole in his hand, unable to accept this fate.

"I'm sorry, mom. I'm really sorry."

* * *

 **To escape reality does not mean to escape to our fantasy. The cruel world is full of opportunities to trap us to our limbo fantasies. It is not to declare that reality is a last resort. But it is best to take responsibility… or be trapped in** _ **The Twilight Zone**_ **.**


	4. Episode 4, Pt 1: The Night He Came Home

_**In the vastness of space, there is one realm that man has failed to recognize on their senses. Abhorred, encapsulated, ignored, overlooked and unheeded – it is what we come to know as the Fifth Dimension. To disregard the presence of such fears is to disregard such humanity. For a human is anything but courageous, if he impasses his or her fears to his own pride. Time will shatter. Reality will object to his own doing. Fear will take the form of man himself. Thus, no man must goad to deception, for it will subject him or her to…The Twilight Zone.**_

 _ **The time is from 04:59 PM to 11:59 PM. The place is the autumn-stained suburbs of Royal Woods. The setting is Halloween. Four innocent suburban teenagers are about to face the results of neglecting their responsibilities as caretakers, as their eldest sister encounters the entity on…the night he came home.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

" **The Night He Came Home"**

The week after Halloween, the investigation still rolls on.

The superintendent of the city walks to his office with his coffee and his croissant. He gets his a case file on his right hand as he walks to the interrogation room.

The office in charge there gives the authority to the suspects in custody. "They are all yours."

The superintendent in his dark blonde short hair and serious stature opens the lights to the interrogation room, where he sees the elder Loud sisters – Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan and Lynn Jr. – simply wait for the detective to arrive. He is impossibly perplexed as to how five ordinary teenagers become involved in the biggest crime of the last week. He puts no bars held when he enters the room, dropping the folder of their case file to the metal table.

"So, the La-ood sisters?"

"Loud," they correct him.

"Well, okay 'Loud', a week ago you are just on your ordinary duties for the Halloween night. But then you become a target of the…Boogeyman?" The superintendent just chuckles at the absurdity of the case. "Boogeyman? Did I read that right?"

"You wouldn't believe him unless you saw him take action," Lori says in confidence.

"Well okay then, how did you saw him in that night?"

At that point, Lori begins to recall memories of the previous Halloween, the night he came home.

 _Flashback_

Lori starts off the morning of October 31st in fitness mode. She has been lifting weights, doing warm-ups in the living room, jogging around the perimeter of her block and consuming her daily dietary supplements. She prepares herself physically before she undertakes the heavy load of errands to be done throughout the day. She once strode herself to failure for skipping her daily exercises but she disciplines herself on continuing.

Her errands of the day include picking up Halloween candy from her mother's dental clinic, taking the van for a tuneup, submitting her last round of university application papers online, preparing caramel-coated apples for trick-or-treaters and bringing Lola and Lana to the annual Halloween party in the richer neighborhood. She is determined to finish them off one step at a time, so that she can video-call her boyfriend Bobby during his next stint in another Universal Horror Nights-like attraction in his place.

However, fate comes through a phone call.

" _Hello?_ " Lori answers. " _Mhmmm…Mrs. McCauley! Hi! Sorry again about Lynn!...Mhmmm…Really? You want us to babysit for Camille and Caleb again?…Oh great! Don't worry, we'll literally do our best this time…. What?...When?...Tonight? Uhmmm…Sure! We can do tonight! My sisters are available tonight. Don't worry. I'll send one of them tonight…Okay…Thank you again for your trust…Yes…Looking forward to it….Okay…Bye!_ "

The oldest sister realizes she crossed a threshold she may never turn away from. "Oh no! I've gotta send one of them to take McCauleys. But who? And why now?" Lori senses nothing but pressure mounting to her system, shaking her fingers and scrambling her thoughts. But she tries to keep her poise.

Later on, she readies Vanzilla for a ride, wiping the exteriors from the raindrop stains from last two days. That is when Lynn walks by, munching an energy bar. Lori notices her and jumps into action, "Lynn, thank goodness I found you!"

"You seemed tense, Lori," Lynn observes.

"Listen, the McCauleys called, and they want us back! So I need someone to take care of them for Halloween night."

"I thought you said they don't like me."

"They do initially. But they are willing to give you a chance. What do you say to that?"

"Uhmm…" Lynn stutters her thoughts.

Yet Lori pleads to her, "Please! Have lots of things to today. So literally appreciated the helping hand. Or you can take one of my tasks instead, and I can watch the McCauley kids."

Lynn knows that she has "stuff" to do for this Halloween night. So, she excuses herself, "Just realized Lori. I have friends to meet up for Halloween."

"What for?"

"Well…we are assigned as the…uhmm…Neighborhood…Task Farce...Task Force? Was it Task Force? Just security for the kids. Neighborhood watch team. That one."

"Why would there be a 'Neighborhood watch team' if there will be cops on standby?"

But Lynn brushes them off. "Cops? They are no match with Lynn Jr.'s squad of streetwise troop."

Lori just passes it up as a passable excuse. Though, she feels that Lynn might be fabricating her story on the spot. "Okay then…" With that, she walks back to Vanzilla, starting it up, then drives to her mother's clinic.

"Hey, when you get the candy, can I have?" Lynn asks.

"No!" Lori replies.

Just as she leaves, a man with a plastered face, a dark coat and khaki pants watches over them.

* * *

When she returns to the house, Lori unloads the candy to the dinner table before she returns to the auto repair shop for a tune-up, since they are still closed when she arrives early. They are boxes of candy that Lori has to carry.

That is when Luan enters the picture, holding her ventriloquist puppet on her left hand Mr. Coconuts. She spouts out to Lori in Mr. Coconuts' persona, " _Woah toots, is that Halloween candy inside? Better slow down. You don't want a sugar rush!_ Hahaha! Good one, Mr. Coconuts."

Lori then notices Luan and confronts her about the babysitting assignment, "Luan, great I saw you! The McCauleys called a while ago. They want us back again to babysit their kids."

"That's great!"

"Yeah, but I am busy for the night. Can you take charge of them?"

"Ohhh…uhmm…" Luan also realizes that she has her own "errands" as well for Halloween night. So, she politely declines, "Sorry Lori, I have a gig tonight for a Halloween party. Been practicing with Mr. Coconuts for whole day. And I have no choice."

"Oh, it's fine. Thanks anyway." Lori cannot help but squirm in the inside for another opportunity missed. "Just open the box or even eat the candy. Literally!"

With that, Luan walks back to her room.

But outside the window, the man with a plastered face, a dark coat and khaki pants watches over them. Ever since he watched over Lynn, he has been listening to their conversations.

* * *

Back to Lori, she now focuses on getting through her online college application. She dedicated unfortunate time on this during Halloween since she is loaded with college applications which have deadlines that fall on the last week of October. It is inconvenient for her. But she musters the effort to finish the essays and upload the documents.

That is when she hears Luna's loud guitar riff. She busts through the door and tells her, "Luna!"

Her strum is so strong that it blocks any form of sound surrounding the place.

In a desperate attempt, Lori unplugs her electric guitar.

"Hey! What's the big deal, dude?" Luna complains.

"I'm trying to literally focus on my college applications!" Lori grumbles.

"Well, sorry for disturbing you," she sarcastically replies.

Though she feels the need to grunt, Lori suddenly remembers about the McCauleys. "Say Luna, you wouldn't be available for tonight, would you?"

"What is that for, dude?"

"The McCauleys called up. They want us back! But they need someone to watch over their kids tonight."

"Oh, tonight?" Luna then gives her excuse since she has her own "activity" for the night. "You see, I have a gig for tonight. Halloween party right across town. I don't want to miss a thing!"

"Ohhh…okay. Thanks. Just keep it down on a notch."

But Luna strums a loud beat.

"Keep it down."

But, overlooking the window from the outside, the man with a plastered face, a dark coat and khaki pants watches over them.

After finishing half of her papers, Lori heads to the kitchen and prepares the apples for the giveaway for tonight's trick-or-treat. She has yet to prepare the caramel mix when she sees Leni infiltrating the refrigerator.

* * *

"Leni, thank goodness I see you!"

"What did I do to goodness? Or what did goodness do to you?!" Leni gasps.

But Lori gets over that oversight. "Okay, never mind. Listen, I need someone to watch over the McCauleys tonight."

"I thought the McCauleys cancelled us as their official babysitter?"

"They did. But they called us up again. And they wanted to give us a chance! Can you literally believe it?!"

Leni is not perceptive of Lori's lexicon. So, she takes her statement without rhetoric. "I don't. Sometimes in customer dissatisfaction they don't come back."

"Not this time. So, are you in?"

"Right…I just remembered that I have a gig tonight."

"A gig?"

"Yeah, the boutique decided to open the store until 11. For Halloween."

"The mall is still open that late?" Lori questions Leni's claim. "I literally hardly believe that."

"They do. Haven't you heard about Hot Topic?"

Lori just frowns upon it. "I get it. So, that's a no?"

"I can't, Lori. Maybe next time." After that, Leni grabs a bottle of yogurt milk from the fridge and heads back to the room to "prepare" for the night.

At that moment, Lori senses the weight of her responsibilities that she has to accomplish for Halloween. Of all the special occasions she has to have heavy tasks, Halloween is usually not one of them. However, she senses an unlikely presence that she turns behind her to see him.

The man with the white plastered mask and the dark coat simply stares at her. Through sheer circumstance, he learns of her situation and takes it to his own advantage.

Lori is rather freaked out at the sight of the masked man that she looks away. But when she turns back at him, he has vanished.

After creating caramelized apples, Lori helps Lola and Lana in their costumes. "What are you two supposed to be literally?"

* * *

"Well, I am always the princess in the picture. So I am the princess, just like every other year," Lola brags.

"Yeah, makes sense. How about you, Lana?"

Lana then takes off her troll head. "I supposed to be a troll from that movie Labyrinth. But I asked to myself, 'Was there a princess in _Labyrinth?_ ' I know there is no princess there, just the Goblin King. And the girl doesn't count."

"Well okay. Let's just get this over with." Lori makes few adjustments to Lola's princess dress that is more _Wizard of Oz_ than _Labyrinth_. After which, she gives two Halloween buckets before she takes them to the van for a ride

With Lori departed, Leni, Luna, Luan and Lynn Jr. easily sneak off to their own "duties" for Halloween. Instead of her going to the mall boutique, Leni joins her friends to a college party on the other side of the city. Instead of getting to a gig, Luna sneaks into a metal rock concert with the help of Chunk. Instead of performing for a Halloween gig, Luan pranks kids with grosser treats. And instead of taking her duty on the "Neighborhood Watch Team", Lynn simply chills with her roller derby friends in a local junkyard to smash some junk with her bat. Never with a conscience did those sisters consider their choices.

The man in the mask looks upon this with delight. He finds his first victims for this perfect Halloween night.

* * *

Back to Lori and company, when they get to the venue of the Halloween party, the twins are ready mesmerized at the extravagant decorations and the kiddie attractions that surround the place. Add to that are fireworks on display. Kids in various costumes – ranging from usual fairy-tale characters to obscure ones like Mal from Firefly – clutter every corner.

Lori drops them at the entrance and tells them, "Okay you two stay close to each other. I literally don't want to lose any of you."

"Relax, it's a party. What could do wrong?" Lola then excitedly heads to the crowd.

"Watch her," Lori tells Lana. After that, she drives off to fetch the McCauleys and bring them to the Loud house.

* * *

 _ **To be continued…**_


	5. Bonus Chapter: Get Out

During the Louds perform their Thanksgiving skit and before the Casagrandes do their silly turkey dances, Rita leads Bobby away from his seat and to the kitchen. She sets up two chairs with cushioned-top armrests facing each other, just for them.

"So how was the show Bobby? Do you like it?" Rita asks.

"Oh it was fun, Mrs. L!" he excitedly talks about his feelings for the play. "Lily as the turkey on trial? Woah! Never have I found such intrigue in a play before! And Lori, oh!" He gets cheesier talking about Lori's performance. "Oh Lori…Lori is a revelation. An acting revelation. I could never ask a better version of her."

"Nice to hear that. Now please sit down."

"Uhmmm sure." Bobby takes the seat as Rita politely offers him a seat.

The Loud family matriarch then takes a teacup, made from blue china and filled with hot jasmine tea. "You don't mind that I…?"

"Oh, of course Mrs. Loud, you deserve the tea after all the hard work."

Amused, Rita takes a sip of her tea but remains it on her lap. She then opens up to him for an enticing conversation. "That's good. Now Bobby…precious Bobby, how are you and Lori?"

"It was great!"

"You enjoying it?"

"Most definitely. I mean from the time we knew you guys wanted to for each of us to stay in my family, then her in your, we clicked. We just naturally clicked. We know it is meant to be."

"Must be strong in being together."

"Oh, it was nothing."

"How long has it been?"

"Still strong for two years straight. Can't wait when we get to…" Bobby then hears a simple clink when Rita taps the spoon to her cup. It seems nothing. But he subconsciously responds to it. "…get to…college."

"Have you two been so open to each other?"

"Well, we share each other's feelings when we are lonely or happy, have good news or bad news, anything we can share."

"That's cute. Really shows how close you have been to her." Rita then glides her spoon around her cup, sliding it over the edges of the painted cerulean paisley patterns of the cup. How soothing the sound is for him.

"Yeah…" he simply utters.

"Now Bobby, Lori told me you have a habit of eating glue," Rita brings up.

Bobby simply chuckles when she brings mention of a particular quirk that only Lori knows, as well as his family. "What? She told you that?"

"Mhm." Rita continues to stir her tea, leaning it to the porcelain. "Seems you are still struggling with it."

Taking a chuckle out of it, Bobby replies, "How would you know?"

"I am a dentist. I sometimes deal with kids whose teeth have glue jammed between their gums. They deny that habit. I can tell."

Bobby just chuckles, this time a nervous when confronted about his hidden habit.

"Now Bobby, let me take you somewhere less stressful." Rita continues to gracefully guide that spoon to the philharmonic sounds of the china.

Bobby finds this soothing…relaxing…and relieving.

"Tell me, when was the last time you are alone in your bedroom?"

"What?" Bobby struggles to dodge the question, but he feels his hands restrained to the armrest.

Rita's stirring gets more soothing and captivating. His hands are kept firm to the rests. He knows for the fact it is relaxing that it takes him to a place where stress is nowhere to be found.

"Tell me."

"I was alone, waiting."

"What were you waiting for?"

Bobby struggles to find his words. Shaking, he utters, "My dad. I was waiting for him to return." His blood pumping gradually escalates.

"What were you doing while waiting?" Rita continues to stir the cup, now tapping on every cycle.

"I stared…at the window." Bobby suddenly pants, feeling that his vocabulary is choking him.

But Rita calms him down her smooth stirring. "What do you seen on the window?"

"Rain. Just rain."

"What did the rain like?" The stirring of the cup assists on supplementing that image that made Bobby recall that innocent childhood memory to instigate from the recesses of his mind. As bobby perceives, Rita's voice sounds like calm rain. "Cold? Misty? Peaceful? Harmful? Harmless?"

"Misty," Bobby answers. "I leaned my head on the glass. I felt the moist on my skin. The rain…" He pauses there, hearing the sound of that rainfall at the back of his head. "It felt peaceful. With the way they drop to the roof. The way they flow and flood the canals."

"How long it did you waited there?"

"It took me a day. It took me a whole day. On the window for him to return." When recalling, Bobby feels his heart breaking, knowing the cause of his father taking so long to return home. His eyes tear up that they slowly drip to his cheeks.

"What happened to your dad?" Rita is somehow not concerned with how Bobby responds emotionally. She is attuned with his sensory reaction to the procedure.

Bobby fights his speech as an internal force tries to control his senses. "He did not show up." He soon breaks down, with his eyes clearly showing his feeling. "He just didn't."

"Was it hard for you?" Rita keeps stirring and stirring and stirring the tea.

Bobby, on the other hand, realizes that recalling a traumatic time from his childhood is enough stress for Thanksgiving just allows more of the stress to stay. His eyes struggle for a way out and on to the surface. He wishes to find it "happy place." "So hard that I wanted to go…" Rita's stirring evoke him to share about "his happy place". "Where I'm at peace…swimming."

"Then go back to that time." Rita's stirring soon becomes a pattern that Bobby falls for. "The rain, it calms you down."

His hands rested, his feet firm, his eyes soaking and his body leaning, Bobby grabs hold of that longingness for inner peace. "Yes. Yes…"

"Now sink."

Then whoop…

Bobby sinks from imagining all rested on his bedroom seat to the void. His body hopelessly falls for the internal gravity, a free fall to a weightless realm. The realm only has a screen-like projection of Rita relaxing him that it serves to provide him light.

Bobby sinks. He lifts his face on high and sees the screen where Rita watches in delight. He tries to flail his arms, wanting to reach back to the screen. But his body naturally falls to the dark void of infinity like a stone in the ocean.

Bobby sinks. He wants to scream for help. But the light touches skin with a bleak blue hue that makes it hard for him to move his limbs. It is the feeling of endlessly sinking in a dark pool, dragged by a sensation of peace and harmony.

Bobby sinks. Sooner Rita approaches his helpless Body. His body now frozen, his eyes now teary-eyed and his expression at total shock, she finds her deed is done.

"Welcome to the Sunken Place, Bobby. This is your happy place. We will soon bring you back to reality. When you wake up, you will appreciate our Thanksgiving skit and will forget your habit of eating glue. In the meantime, we will fight. Thus you suggest to Lori evacuate at Flip's. She will give you instructions. We all know how this goes: our families will fight. But you and Lori will win our hearts over that we agree to go to each other's houses for Thanksgiving. Next year, it will still be us you are visiting. You will be the one to enforce that idea to your family. They are good pawns. You will feel this in your subconscious but you won't recall any of this information. You are a good boy, Bobby. Sleep."

Bobby wants to scream to the face of his girlfriend's mother. But he just hopelessly witnesses her closing his right eye and finally his left eye. It shuts him in the dark void of the Sunken Place.

But immediately…

"HAH!" Bobby wakes up at the near end of the Thanksgiving skit by the Louds. It is at this moment that Judge Lori is about to give her verdict to the turkey Lily. He immediately reacts to the scene that it wakes his family.

After Thanksgiving, the Casagrandes return to their apartment, joyful about their celebrations with the Louds in Flip's convenience store. In addition, they receive gifts from the Louds, including an uncooked turkey, a butcher's knife, a tea recipe book and a tea set.

"Man, the Louds are surely generous with their gifts," Carlos Casagrandes shares, "Lisa even gave me a history book about the Hispanic community in Michigan."

"That's great she does that," Bobby reacts.

"Oh Bobby, can you picture me holding it? Love to show this to my colleagues."

With that, Bobby takes his Uncle Carlos' phone and takes a photo of him with the flash on. Somehow, this strikes his eyes that his head slightly spun from the flash.

"Uncle Carlos, are you okay?" Bobby suddenly notices his nose dripping of blood.

But not affected with the sudden nosebleed, Uncle Carlos coaxes to him at full grip. "Get out. Get out, Bobby."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Get out of us, Bobby. It's a trap! GET OUT!"

The Casagrandes react by taking hold of his arms when he tries to escape.

Uncle Carlos' pleas catch Bobby off-guard. He does not know what he means or why his family apprehends him like that.

But truly, Bobby needs to GET OUT. (Of sleep.)

* * *

Happy Thanksgiving to all.


	6. Episode 5: Lynn's Yesterday

On one evening at 7:41, Lynn Loud Jr. is doing her daily workout routine. In her loose gym shorts, her baggy sweatshirt and her yellow sweatband, she does whatever it takes to maintain her stamina for her upcoming marathon this Sunday. With added supplement, she sometimes wears a headset or earphones that plays the rawest songs to work out on. She has been working out after school at the evening for five months. And she shows no sign of stopping.

It may come as normal for the Louds. But the more Lynn Jr. goes through her routine, the more distant she becomes from her own family. Even she grows distant from her closest sister and roommate Lucy. Let us be grateful that her equivocal estrangement has not yet reached its breaking point.

As Lynn does push-ups, Luna knocks to her room, carrying a box. "Dude, you're package is here."

But thanks to the loud music, she is not able to hear her.

"Dude! Lynn, dude!"

Still, Lynn does not hear her.

With no choice, Luna lifts Lynn's left headphone and yells at her. "Lynn, I'm calling you, dude!"

"Not now, Luna. Have to complete a round of hundred pushups."

"You have a package."

And just hearing that prompts Lynn to react finally. "Package?! Hold on. 82, 83, 84…!"

Luna surprisingly overhears the music that Lynn is listening. "Is that 'No Satisfaction'?"

"Uh-huh."

"Hmm. Good choice. Like your taste."

Lynn then hurries (or procrastinates) doing push-ups while singing, till she reaches, "'I can't get no 87'...100!" After that exhausting ritual, she grabs the package from Luna, unwraps the courier courier mail plastic and unveils the package: a pair of professional running shoes with red and white emblems. "There it is Luna, the crepe de la creme!"

"You mean creme de la creme?"

"Same thing." Lynn then boasts with undeterred pride like she is boasting something symbolic. "Here it is. The best in the market. The shoes that gave birth to Jesse Owens. These babies have that ultra athlete's foot technology to help me run the race. With these, I will win the marathon."

But Luna is not feeling her younger sister's passionate reaction. "They're just shoes."

Obviously, Lynn does not take that simply. "Just shoes?!"

"I mean yeah, I get it. These shoes will make you win. But how does it differ from your other shoes?"

"We'll just see about that."

With that, Lynn takes the pair and wears it immediately. The shoes are just the right fit for her sharp soles. After showing it off to Luna, she gives it a try and sprints out of her room.

"Hey Lynn, where are you going?" Luna asks.

"Night jog," she replies.

"We still have dinner!"

But Lynn ignores her. She puts on her headphones once more as she exits through the door.

Her mother calls her out for dinner. "Lynn, where are you going? It's dinner time!" To no avail.

Lynn then heads out to the cold lanes for a jog.

 **Here to present the epilogue - Rod Serling: "A wise saying by a man named Owen, hailed as a steadfast worker, declares that "when boasting ends, there dignity begins". But the tables will turn in this realm, wherein "when dignity ends, there boasting begins". What shall be lost from the grasp of an aspiring athlete drives her to sacrifice her humble dignity for fragile boasting. To obtain that one thing that "completes" her not just as an athlete but as a person. With her dignity in a hanging balance, she had no choice but to dive right in...The Twilight Zone."**

With her headphones on and her direction straight, Lynn Jr. takes a night jog along the suburbs of Royal Woods and towards the park.

On the way, she keeps receiving message notifications from her social media accounts, which she swiped out and ignored. Her teammate and best friend Margo finally calls her, to which she answered since she is her athlete buddy.

"Yo!"

" _Lynn, what you up to?_ " Margo replies.

"Jogging. Making it a 5k tonight," Lynn answers back.

" _Woah, really dedicated for this Sunday, eyy?_ "

"You said it best. So, what's up?"

" _So, I heard about this hotshot player from the Beaverton Bees. Her name is Angie Carroll. She's also Beaverton's fastest runner. And she said she'll be running in the marathon._ "

"Fastest runner, you say?"

" _Yeah, check out her stats. Here it is. I sent you a link of her article online._ "

By her friend's advice, Lynn opens the link, previewing the hotshot athlete's stats and feats, and scrolls through her phone, driving away her focus on what is ahead of her.

With her eyes and ears on her phone while her legs are mobile, an ominous phenomenon makes its glorious entrance. The lights around her start to flicker. The sirens from cars sound on and off repeatedly. The road signal lights keep switching signals in a haphazard fashion. And a strong gust of wind blows against the young athlete's direction. It is almost like a strong blackout is coming.

But Lynn has other pressing matters upon browsing her phone. "She won 5 10K marathons straight in a single month? Dang, this girl is a beast. We have a new standard!"

" _Wait, what are you saying?_ " Margo asks.

"I'm saying we dethrone her. We train double time, or triple, and prove her that there are other beasts in the county."

" _Don't you think it's too extreme? I mean we can try. But what's the use of 'beating her'?_ "

"It's an athlete's pride, Margo. Athlete's pride!"

" _Yeah but I think it's just…zzzzz..._ " Margo's line suddenly buffers as the cellphone signal gets disrupted.

Lynn tries to reach out to her friend's line. "Hello Margo? Hello? Can't hear you. Your line seems lost. Margo? Margo?!"

Suddenly, a truck with its bright headlights comes straight to her direction, prompting Lynn to trip from her track yet dodge from nearly colliding with the truck. However, she hovers over the air, out of balance and out of control. And she lands face first to the concrete asphalt. Her body lands with less impact than her face. And her phone is cracked from the fall. The device only plays this song to end it in an abrupt switch off: "Papa was a rollin'..."

The entire world is at blackout.

...And everything is restored after a second. The lights become still. The car sirens sound off. The road signal lights are restored functional. And the wind turns into a breeze.

But Lynn had landed on the street, face down and knocked out from dodging a truck.

The truck driver immediately tends to her injuries. He calls in paramedics for help. They rush her to the hospital where they treat her facial injury. Gladly, her legs, the primary limbs that she needs at the moment, suffered from partials wounds and scratches.

In the morning, Lynn wakes up at the top of her breath. Her mother and her friend Margo sit by.

"Lynn! You're awake!" Rita yelps.

She huffs and puffs, trying to recollect what transpired. "Mom? Margo? Am I in the hospital?"

"Yes dear, you're recovering fine," she assures.

Margo adds, "Only got a head bumps. But the doctors said your head injury was not that damaging, thanks to that extra immuno routine."

Hearing the words "head injury" makes Lynn anxious that she takes the hand mirror from the tabletop and check her facial injury. The right side suffered from scrapes but was wrapped in gauzes. The forehead was marked with a bump. And her tooth got knocked out. "WHAT THE?!"

"Just chill down Lynn," Rita appeases her. "The more you are stressed, the longer it takes to heal."

"I ain't healing in time for the marathon with this face!"

"Just calm yourself. The doctors said it will need a longer maintenance, but you can still run."

This still deters a disgruntled Lynn from raising her hopes up.

Thus, Margo steps up to take action. "I'll handle this Mrs. L."

"Okay, why don't you two go chat? I'll just check the hospital bills."

As Rita walks to hospital concierge, Margo climbs up Lynn's hospital bed with her phone. "I called up the team, saying that you are doing a-okay. And told them to send any message for you. So they did this." She then shows a photo from her phone of Lynn's soccer team holding a pieced-together placard that reads "Get Well Lyn".

While it is most appreciative, Lynn glares at the error. "Where's the other 'n'? It's Lyn-N. Not Lyn. Why the heck will my own soccer team will ever misspell my name?"

"Cut some slack. They did that overnight."

Lynn is of course getting along with the joke. "I'm telling you, if they misspell my name one more time, I'm gonna make them drink my secret protein juice."

"The one with squid ink, rye and duck liver?"

"Exactly!"

The two friends giggle. For the next few minutes, they laugh over each other's banter.

Lynn then requests to Margo, "Hey, do you know the song 'goodbye nana Tuesday'? The one that was on your grandma's birthday? Can you play it?"

"What now?"

"You know 'goodbye nana Tuesday, nanana a name on you…' Play it on your phone."

Margo is having trouble recalling what song Lynn is referring to. "Seriously, I don't know any song that goes 'nana...nana Tuesday'."

"You sure? I know you sing that during your grandma's birthday."

Margo then emphasizes, "I sang 'Little Queenie' to grandma."

"Ohh…"

"Must be the concussion talking. Just chill it out, Lynn."

Even with the advice of her friend, Lynn cannot allow herself to chill at that point. She did set that concern aside later on. But it is uncertain how it can manifest eventually.

Later that day, she is discharged from the hospital. Rita picks up her daughter and brings her to the family van using a wheelchair. Margo hops along for a ride home.

Upon arriving, Lynn is greeted by her family. They are all there - welcoming her with confetti, streamers, balloons and a cake with a greeting "Wellcome Back". "Welcome home, Lynn!"

Lynn is rather pleased with her family's welcoming home greeting, though with reservations. "Thanks guys. You don't have to throw a welcoming part for me."

"Come on, Junior!" Lynn Sr. replies, "We were so worried about you."

"So, we thought we could make it up to you," Lori finishes.

"Tell us what you want," Lincoln says, "As something to make up for you."

Lynn Jr. simply lends a smile, showing appreciation to her family. She then turns to Luna, "Hey Luns, can you play the song 'I Can't Get No Satisfaction'?"

Luna is puzzled by her request. "The what song?"

"You know, 'I Can't Get No Satisfaction'? 'No Satisfaction'?"

"I am not getting you, dude."

"For real?! 'No Satisfaction'?!"

"Don't know what you are talking about."

"By Mick Swagger's rock band?!" Lynn Jr. tries to make her older sister recall, allowing her earlier encounter with Margo to resurface.

"Who the heck is Mick Swagger?"

And that judgment blow Lynn's perception that her entire world comes to a halt from severe disbelief. "Wait, you don't know Mick Swagger? Your favorite rock star?!"

"Dude, I don't even like rock. I like boy band music!" Proudly, Luna does an impromptu dance routine that is too reminiscent of current K-Pop groups (like BTS). She even sings the misunderstandable lyrics with broken English.

The Louds applaud her stint, but Lynn Jr. finds it widely eerie. "Uhmmm...I think I'm gonna stay in my room and lock myself in there for a while." She then gets off from her wheelchair and runs upstairs.

"Wait, Lynn Jr.!" her father calls her out, "How about the celebration? We still have cake for you!"

In her room, Lynn heads straight to her desktop computer to straighten herself up from the reality she is in. She mutters, "I am not insane! I am not insane! I am not insane!" She then goes to the Internet's top browsing site: Bing. "What?! Seriously?!" Nevertheless, she types in 'I Can't Get No Satisfaction' on the search bar, to see no search results for her song other than Twitter posts that had those specific words.

Lynn twitches at that summary, but she keeps going to make sense of her "current" reality. She types in 'rolling stones', only to show results of Bob Dylan's song "Like a Rolling Stone" and the Motown song "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone". She refreshes the site to see if it changes, to no avail.

"Okay! You got me, guys! You got me! Enough of your pranks, Luan! You win! You all missed me!"

But Lynn can only hear the laughter that comes from downstairs.

Not wanting to dismiss her sanity, Lynn Jr. then searches for Mick Swagger, to receive no significant sign of him. "No, this can't be! This is not the reality I am living in," she keeps uttering to herself, going different searches for Foreigner, Pink Floyd, Manchester United, Chelsea FC, Cristiano Ronaldo, soccer, basketball, table football and tacos with expected results. However, in searches for Aerosmith, Journey, baseball, Yogi Berra, Babe Ruth, Major League, FIFA, Lionel Messi and sloppy joes, she gets no results. It is almost the latter group never existed.

In panic mode, Lynn searches from her basket of sports balls to see no sign of her baseball ball, her glove, her umpire helmet and even her bat. "No! BASEBALL DOESN'T EXIST?! What reality am I in?!"

She then barges out of her room and browses her family photos. To her shock, what once was her photo featuring her and her dad playing baseball is replaced with them playing hockey. "Well, glad to know that dad's good at hockey. But I have to make all things normal. But how?"

While thinking, Lynn turns her head to an open closet that is somehow in the hall. She opens it up to see a tennis ball and a badminton racket. This gives her an idea for the family.

"Hey guys! I have an idea for a game!"

The enthusiastic athlete brings her family to the yard. She then introduces the game, "I call this 'baseball'. The game is simple. I throw a ball. And you hit it. Maybe not with this racket but it works too."

"Why is it called 'baseball'?" Leni asks.

"Is it from the rear?" Luan jokes, followed by the family laughing.

"It's not that 'base'. This is the four bases on the ground. But that's beside the point. The point is you throw the ball, you hit it with a strong bat while on the air."

"You can't hit balls with a bat! That's illegal!" Lana argues.

But Lynn stresses, "Not a bat with wings. A bat. You use it to hit the ball. Just let me demonstrate. But I need a volunteer first."

While the others hesitate, Lincoln volunteers, "I do! I do!"

"Okay Lincoln, stay in the middle." Once she places her brother in position and gives him the racket, Lynn advises him, "Okay when I throw the ball, try to hit it."

"Okay, I'll try…"

But Lynn throws the ball forcefully.

"Hey Lynn! I wasn't…"

She hits another ball, but Lincoln misses. She keeps hitting more balls till her family stops her.

"Lynn! Stop! I think Lincoln has enough," Rita pleads when she points out that Lincoln is rocking in fear from Lynn's supposed ball throws.

"I'm just trying to introduce baseball!"

"Braceball or whatever ball, you shouldn't force it to your sisters and brother," Lynn Sr. says. "And don't give us the excuse of your face injury. Just take our advice and give it a break for now."

Hearing that from her own dad, who proudly supports her in any line of sports, hits right into Lynn's heart that she growls in anger that makes her snap the badminton racket in half.

Because of that, the still injured Lynn marches to her room in disappointment.

The next day, Lynn wakes up with her head bandages wrapped, her hair groggy and her bed messy. "Another day, another baseball-less day."

Usually, as expected by Lynn, Lucy would show up at the right side of her bed to respond to her morning groanings. However, she does not. "Lucy? Lucy?" To her shock, Lucy's bed is not there.

"LUCY?! LUCY? LUCY?!"

She steps out of her room to see the bedroom hall still the same. She knocks on Luna and Luan's room. Only a tired-looking Luan answers the door. "What?"

"Oh Luan, thank goodness! Lucy is not in our room. As does her bed and her gothy stuff."

"Wait, who's Lucy?"

"WHAT?! LUCY! Our sister?!"

"Is this for real, Lynn? Or are you just making McCartney effect pranks on me?"

Lynn is in utter disbelief when she senses that the logic around her has been different. "McCartney effect?"

"Yeah, McCartney effect. False memory. From the time that dude thinks that Paul McCartney is still alive but he is dead…"

"Wait, who are our sisters again?"

"You, me, Luna, Lana and Lisa."

"Wait, so we have no brother?"

"Oh, dad wishes. But you know him, workaholic…" After that, Luan slowly closes the door to her room.

By then, Lynn's newly shifted reality has made her speechless. She could only spot the room sign to Luna's room, that was formerly Lori and Leni's bedroom.

She heads to her room and turns her computer on. There she makes the stunning discovery that her name is actually "Lynn Masterson". Lynn is still in disbelief of her current reality. Upon standing, she feels like her entire world trembling. Then, she accidentally steps on a guitar.

Hearing its string strum, Lynn picks it up. She then notices the sticker on it that reads "Property of Lynn". After she picked it up, she has an idea. She knocks on the door to Luna's room to plead to Luna. "Luna, I want you to play something for me."

"Lynn, why are you giving me your guitar? You know I can't play an instrument," Luna with long hair says.

"WHAT?!"

"You seemed to act like this is a big surprise," Luna replies. "If you don't mind, I need to get back to my sewing tutorials." She then closes the door to her room.

Upset, Lynn walks back to her room and holds the guitar. "Luna...doesn't play music? And how come this is mine when I don't…?" Lynn then accidentally strums the guitar gracefully. Curious, she strums it again, almost like she knows how to play a guitar. She then plays a musical piece. It is then she realizes that her new reality has her established as a musician. She browses her room to see that she enjoyed Janis Joplin, Whitesnake and A Flock of Seagulls.

By then, the memories of Mick Swagger's band land to her, making her trying to remember their songs. With that, she lists them down, based on her shifting memory. She obtains songs like "Symphony for the Doorman", "Hunka Hunka Woman", "Under the Broadway", "As Years Go Fly", "She's a Raincoat" and "I Get No Cannot Satisfaction".

She tries her best to piece together the songs. She composes and records fifteen of their songs and sends them online in hopes to restore her reality. For the next thirty days, she has been trying to retrieve all songs from the band and from Mick Swagger. And with her determination and her artistry, Lynn can almost imagine the moment that "her work" is recognized.

But after twenty-nine days, she gets no response. Not a single person is interested in her songs. Her videos in the online video platform iView has not reached a hundred views. And her CDs are piled up to her room. With no progress in sight, she is ready to quit with her face buried to her bed.

Luna passes by her room to try to reconnect with Lynn, "Lynn, dinner's ready."

"Can't," Lynn bemoans, "I need to prove myself."

"You know what Lynn, you can get no satisfaction." After that, she goes downstairs for dinner.

Lynn then snoozes for the night.

The next day, merely a month after she woke up in a new reality, Lynn Loud Jr. opens her eyes to see herself floating on an endless dark void with no one around but her. "Hello? Guys? Anybody?! WHERE AM I? HELLO!"

What Lynn does not know that she existed outside of the current real-time reality we are right now. She never exists in that reality. She is merely an anomaly never known to man on a dimension unreachable by any living man.

She is the only person who hears her scream. "HELLO?! ANYBODY?!"

 **Here to present the conclusion - Rod Serling: "There, we witness from Lynn's hapless ignorance that "when boasting ends, there dignity begins". But she is merely blinded to the focus that "when dignity ends, there boasting begins". Now, she becomes an unwilling resident and the sole survivor...of The Twilight Zone."**


	7. Episode 6: The 13 of Us

For this fourth week of October, the Louds escape from their busy lives in Royal Woods and book a lake cabin to stay in and unwind for the wonderful weekend. Some are onboard for this mini-vacation, while others are less than so.

One of them is Lori, who is anxiously texting on her phone about an incident that caught her up from school. Her text threads and social media feeds are filled with notifications that she has to catch up back and forth. As one who is so engrossed with her social media lifestyle, Lori gave herself no excuse to feel terrible for what happened back at school.

Another of whom is Lynn, who is antsy about joining the trip since her mind is on training and preparing for her upcoming lacrosse match with her friends. Since they knew less of the game, Lynn - obviously the most experienced - had to prepare them in mind and body to be equipped for their match. During the trip, she was browsing a book about lacrosse "for dummies".

Lola is also one of the siblings who are not excited for the trip. She is more concerned about her pageant queen image after one stint at charity event. The young beauty queen passes the time during the trip by straightening her hair and experimenting with different shades of her eye shadow. Her recurring aggravations drives from the bumps on the road.

Lisa is also unenthusiastic about the trip. Though unlike her other sisters, she is rather passive than annoyed or negative. Thanks to the extension of her research about cloning, Lisa occupies her time with tuning in to a recorded discussion from the local university and takes notes to study her findings.

And finally, also Lincoln is not onboard with the family's impromptu trip to a secluded cabin by the lake. He had his weekend pre-planned with Clyde, as they and others plan to bike around town and to Great Lakes City to visit Ronnie Anne. And because of Lincoln pulling out at the last second, Clyde and company decided to join the school's biggest block party.

This makes Lincoln very jealous that he shares his sentiments to his dad, "Dad, is it really necessary that we all go to your cabin in the woods?"

"It's not a 'cabin in the woods', son," Lynn Sr. points out, "It's a 'cabin out of the woods'. We're going out of our woodland jungle and back to nature."

"I mean I get you dad, but we had stuff back at home to do this weekend."

"They can wait, son. Why can't you be like your other sisters?"

Lynn Sr. is referring to the other half of his sisters who are more positive than those aforementioned. Leni is playing patty-cake endlessly with Lily rather than monitoring her diaper period, Luna tunes in to her favorite radio station and blurts out singing songs that range from soft rock to hardcore, Luan gives this joke: "What does the janitor for the White House says to his wife every after work? Oh honey, see how I trump! Hahaha! You won't get it!", Lucy just sits still but is more or less satisfied, and Lana is sounding off bird sounds to attract birds to come to her.

"We're not all of our sisters, dad," Lynn Jr. comes to her brother's defense.

"Just trust me, Junior," their father assures, "Once we get to our dream cabin, we will experience nature like never before. Right, Rita? Rita?"

However, the Loud family matriarch has been silent for the entire trip. She has her eyes fixated on the endless passage of the highway landscape, going before them. From her worried eyes and her uneasy silence, she has a lot in her mind that she is keeping for the entirety. Naturally, this causes for her husband to grow concerned.

"Rita, are you okay?"

"Oh, it's Le…No, I'm fine. Yes, of course," she assures him. "I was just thinking about something back home."

"Don't worry about it, Rita. This is why we had this trip in the first place. To leave our worries back at home and to refresh ourselves in nature. Okay?"

But Rita is less moved by his consolation. She is more reserved to her motherly anxieties.

"Here, just to clear your mind." Lynn Sr. then switches on the radio, and the hiphop song "I Got 5 on It" by Luniz is being played all of a sudden.

Most of the children groan at the urban music, but Lynn Jr., Luna (who seemed to overhear the song that she put down her headphones), Lucy, Lana and, sooner, Lincoln dig to its beat.

"Dad, why are you playing that song?!" Lori complains.

"It's a drug song!" Lola adds.

"It's not a drug song, kids," Lynn Sr. defends. "Don't do drugs."

Rita gets off from her worry stupor and bops along to the song. She even encourages Lincoln to enjoy the song. "That's it, son."

"You seemed happy, mom, unlike a while ago," Lincoln acknowledges.

"Well, you just have to let loose of yourself," she says.

Later on, they play "Happy Together" by The Turtles, to mixed results.

By that point, the family exits from the state highway and travels deeper to rural Colorado, where their lake cabin is located. They even pass by the state boundary sign.

Rod Sterling appears to deliver his introduction: " **The world we live in is a world of duality, the right and the wrong. Wherever it shines, there is also a place where it rains. Whenever silence comes, noise occupies whenever somewhere else. Whoever is found, someone is lost. When peace is one land, war is on the other. And when we show our angels, we hide our demons. Witness as an innocent family, angels in their own rights, becomes plagued with guilt as a unit. For they better beware of the demons they try to conceal, who had waited patiently for their time to emerge from…the Twilight Zone.** "

After additional two hours of travel, the family arrives in their coveted lake cabin. The sun is nearly setting. So, the excitable half of the Loud siblings run to the lake shoreline to take a dip on the warm waters.

"Leni, have you brought the floaters for Lily?" Luna asks.

"Floaters?" Leni gasps, obviously having forgotten it.

"You didn't bring them? That's the only thing you supposed to bring, you airhead!"

Nobody hears Luna blurt out that insult to Leni since the other three sisters are busy enjoying the lake: Lana is stomping her feet on the sand beneath the lake, and Luan and Lily trick Lana with Luan sneakily opening the infant's diaper to let the stool matter flow out.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Louds settle in the log cabin. Lori and Lincoln try to search for cellphone signal. But they end up bumping at each other.

"No signal!" Lynn Jr. confirms.

"Grrrr!" Lori grunts. "Just things couldn't get any literally better."

"Hey, I am just as upset as you are," Lincoln retorts.

Lynn Sr. intervenes, "Now, Lori and Lincoln, first impressions may be bad. But give it time. You will appreciate this place."

Lucy then remarks, "This place that was once a resting house for Confederate soldiers to make fun of their captives…"

But her father stops her from continuing. "Okay, thanks for the info, Lucy. That's just hearsay. Don't take it from what you hear. Take it from what you see now."

"Yeah, I see no reason to waste my time while Anne Stacy is looking pretty on the TV cameras, while I rot on a stupid rest house!" Lola bursts out in aggravation.

Gathering four of his children's plight makes Lynn Sr. worrisome. His "only" wish for this brief retreat to an old lake house is to strengthen the bond with each other. But he seems to disregard that some of them have huge unresolved concerns that they left behind.

With that, a burnout Lynn Sr. retreats to the bedroom, where Rita is standing by the mirror, staring at her own reflection. Lynn Sr. does not notice her as he drops himself to the bed.

"Lynn, Lynn…"

Rita's voice is sort of frail. But her husband fails to distinguish it. "Rita, this whole trip's starting to fail. I don't know why does it have to end up a failure." He then overhears his children's cheers as half of them play by the lake. "Well, at least some of the girls had fun."

"Lynn…"

"Yes honey, you seemed stiff there."

"Oh, it's nothing. I just thought that by looking on your own reflection on the mirror will help refresh my mind. And inspire myself."

"Inspire yourself?" Lynn Sr.'s earlier concerns about his wife resurface. "Okay, what's this about?"

"Just needing new material for my next big story. And then one came to memory."

"Really? What is it?"

"This lake. It reminds me of one thing: my precious childhood."

Lynn Sr. is uncertain of where their conversation will go. Nevertheless, he gives the floor to his beloved wife, "Okay…go on…"

As Rita is about to share her story that took till night to tell, no one (but one) in the family realizes that they are in the point of no return.

"There was a little girl. Clara was her name. She was a sweet and innocent girl. She had a lot to learn when she was growing up. Her parents never taught her how to grow up. Only how to live in this cruel world. They were too happy to be enjoying life. They wanted to be happy in any way, whether their direction is to go left nor right. I too became happy, whatever way."

"One summer, they stayed at a secluded beach house like the one we are in now. They were happy there that they never wanted to go back. But whatever memory they cherished in such an innocent cabin, they had to leave it behind. It was hard for poor Clara to accept it."

Lynn Sr. asks, "What allowed Clara to think such a thing?"

Before Rita can continue, Lincoln knocks on their open door.

"Lincoln, what is it?" his father asks.

"There's a family on the driveway," he answers.

This alarms Mr. and Mrs. Loud that they immediately get downstairs to confront the suspected intruders at the driveway.

The rest of the children check out the commotion. And upon seeing the entrants, silhouetted but huddled together, they are filled with confusion as to why a group like that would stalk at night.

"Who do you think they are?" Lynn Jr. asks.

"They look like they're trick-or-treating," Leni assumes.

"How could they be trick-or-treating? Where are their baskets?" Lola argues.

"Hep, hep kids, let's not jump into conclusions," Lynn Sr. insists. He then approaches the intruders. "Hello, can we help you? Hello? Neighbors?"

They do not answer back.

Lynn Sr. calls them out again, "Neighbors? Or…you guys? If you don't need something from us, I suggest you stop stalking our cabin and scaring my children. Okay?"

But they do not answer back, even after Lynn Sr. calls them out thirteen times. Their ominous presence only adds to the valid concern for the Louds.

"They didn't hear us?" Luan remarks.

"They must be just cardboard cutouts," Lana guesses.

"Do cardboard cutouts had the physiological function of breathing and heaving as if they have organs inside of them?" Lisa sarcastically retorts.

"Well, at least I'm bothered as we all are," she counter-argues.

"Should we call the police, honey?" Rita suggests.

"Hush, Rita. I got this. Junior, lacrosse stick?"

"Uhmmm why dad?" Lynn asks back.

But he insists, "Come on Junior. It's alright. We're not gonna hurt them. We're gonna scare them to submission."

Reluctantly, Lynn retrieves her lacrosse stick and hands it to her father.

The Loud family patriarch then continues his intimidation tactics. "Okay, whoever you scary people are, I guess we have to do it the hard way to drive you out. 'Cause if you want to get crazy, we can get crazy!"

This somehow triggers for the ominous group to spread out and sprint around the perimeter of the cabin like inhumane animals. Only this is with exception of a burly figure who marches to Lynn.

The Louds scream at this revelation that they walk back to the house, huddled together in fear. They can almost feel the rest of the intruders stalking every corner.

There are bangs on the wall. There are thrushes from the outside bushes. There are footsteps heard on the pavement. And there are hubbubs occupying the walls of the cabin.

The Loud children defend themselves from the incoming threat: Lincoln with an umbrella, Lori with a pan, Luna with a golf club and Luan with a bear spray.

Two of the intruders in red jumpsuits break through the windows with their arms, aiming to grab one of them children. They then grab Lana and Lisa out.

"NOOOOOO!"

Another of them sprints from the right hall, stabbing Luna on her right foot and snatching Leni out.

"LENI!"

Two more emerge from the right-side hall. Lincoln and Lori block them off. But they get duked out by their soon-to-be-captors.

"Hang on, kids! Let's go!" With no choice, Rita has Luna cling on to her shoulders and carries Lola to lead Luan, Lynn Jr., Lucy and Lily out of the cabin to their left side.

But eventually, they are blocked by seven of them, who hit Luan and Lynn Jr. by the knee with a hard paddle.

"Don't hurt my children!" Rita scolds at them!

Yet one of the intruders responds, "Your children?"

At that note, Rita drops all of her confidence as a mother. She cannot argue from what the intruder raised. She realizes that the captor in red wanted to silence her. And it succeeded.

The seven of them direct the frightened family to go to the living room.

Not wanting more of them hurt, they comply.

Rita can sense the fear that her children are inhabiting right now. With the presence of home invaders for the very first time, she does not know how to handle such a situation, let alone with something that involves bloody carnage.

As they approach to the couch, Lynn Sr., Lincoln, Lori, Luna, Lana and Lisa are also rested with more than drastic injuries to tell. Lynn Sr.'s hands are severely swelling. Lori's face is nearly wounded. Lincoln's body is filled with aches and scrapes. Luna's foot is drenched in blood. Lana is filled with filth throughout, including her mouth. And Lisa looks like having suffered from a combustion, as seen from the soot on her hair.

The seven fearfully settle on the couch, while their captors gather in front of them. The fireplace provide a way for the family to try to recognize the home invaders.

"Look, if you want my money or our belongings, that's fine. Take them all!" Lynn Sr. pleads.

"We don't want your money, fraud!" the mother figure of the group insults him.

"Who are you?!" Lori asks.

At that insistence, the group, who are coincidentally thirteen, take of their masks, exposing their tethered faces to the Louds. The latter family are left speechless at the sight of their captors, all holding a pair of golden, symmetrical scissors.

Lincoln can only utter this to them, "It's us…"

Lo and behold, their captors are doppelgangers to the Louds.

"You seemed surprised, Rita," her doppelganger remarks on her raspy yet choking voice. "Long time. But it's nice to see your family. You can meet mine too."

"My husband, Gordon." He is Lynn's burlier doppelganger.

"My eldest Madison." She is Lori's doppelganger with the right side of her hair shaved.

"My second Zara." She is Leni's doppelganger with long nails.

"My third Nancy." She is Luna's doppelganger with longer and straighter hair.

"My fourth Vicky." She is Luan's doppelganger with pigtails and venomous eyes.

"My fifth Nell." She is Lynn's doppelganger with a hockey mask.

"My seventh Cipher." She is Lucy's doppelganger with her numberless eyes unconcealed.

"My eighth batch of twins Castor and Pollux." They are Lana and Lola's doppelgangers, respectively, who look exactly like each other, only with dirty blond hair.

"My tenth Beth." She is Lisa's doppelganger with bob hair.

"My youngest Heather." She is Lily's doppelganger, plain and simple.

"And my only boy Dodge." He is obviously Lincoln's doppelganger with emo getup.

They look towards the Loud family with a preying instinct, as if they want to "befriend" them instinctively. But their conniving eyes and sharp smile make it immediately frightening for the Louds.

"We await your return, Rita," the mother hen of the group says.

"Return?" Lynn Sr. asks his wife.

But she rebuffs her. "You don't know me even if you look like me."

"I can see Rita. In your eyes, you say 'Lenore, it has been so long from when I last saw you. But it's good that you came by to relive those times.'"

Gordon looks at Lynn Sr. with growling contempt. "About the fraud that your husband committed."

Madison then stares at Lori with preying desire. "About the time you mocked those girls. I love that."

Zara also looks at her counterpart with evil desire. "About how you are the funnest, idlest coworker."

Nancy hisses at her supposed twin. "About you depraving to the sickest songs ever."

Vicky rubs her hands as she jeers at her copy. "About those pranks filled with scat."

Nell snarls at Lynn Jr. with maniacal hunger. "About the proud Lynn Loud that I like to see when she pushes her teammates all over."

Dodge gawks frighteningly at the already frightened Lincoln. "About you, son, and your delicious self-pity."

Cipher scowls like a conniving cat at Lucy. "About your idol worship to isolation."

Pollux and Castor struggle to giggle but only end up scaring Lola and Lana. "About the excesses you lovely twins swim on."

Beth glows her evil cat's eye to Lisa. "About the prideful genius that is Lisa Loud, the traitor."

And finally, Heather contributes with uttering her adult, evil laughing voice. "And about your lovely infant innocently choosing the material world over your family."

"All of us, we love to share our lives to you," Lenore says, "That includes you, Rita. There's so much to catch. So much to return to, from what you have taken from the past. Now, with my family, it's our time to take the present!"

Angered but frightened, Rita forcefully pushes Lenore to the weak wooden floor, causing them to crash to the basement. The two of them try to duke each other out in a bloodbath. Similarly, it triggers for the Louds to stop their tethered versions.

Rita takes the scissors away from Lenore's hand, only for the latter to nudge her with her elbow. Lenore gets above a lying Rita and attempts to choke her. But Rita tries to throw objects that she can grab around her. Finally, she grabs an old book from a shelf below and smacks it to Lenore's face, knocking her down.

"Don't dare show your face or your family around me," she taunts her.

However, Rita recognizes the book that she weaponized against Lenore – the very first novel manuscript that she had published. " _The Better Fraction_ …What is it doing here?"

Lenore rises up to give insight on Rita's encounter of the manuscript. "Now, you know, and you are remembering. That night, after your self-proclaimed family dwelled in this place. After they self-proclaimed their ownership of this unrecognized landmark, you went deeper and deeper to the obscure, hoping to find your inspiration. And in this platform, you saw a picture of yourself. Or you saw yourself with a self-proclaimed novel on your hands. It is not a mystery why you cannot get your novel published because you are not worthy of writing."

Triggered, Rita lunges to Lenore and beats her up with the hard copy manuscript. She would not stop on pushing Lenore down to the degree of trying to shield away from her past failures. "YOU. ARE. NOTHING. BUT. A. DEMON!" And the mother takes her last beat, breaking into tears.

She achieves protecting her family from the tethered's ruthless leader.

Eventually, Lincoln goes downstairs to the basement to check out his mom. He catches her fixing up the premises and disposing the remains. "Mom?"

"Lincoln? Hey sweetie, I'll be up. Just wait for me upstairs," Rita tells him. "Okay?"

Unnerved, Lincoln complies by going back to the rest of the family, where he encounters them fixing up the bodies. He seems perplexed by this, probably perhaps he chased his foe Dodge to the cabinet and he left his family fending off their doppelgangers.

Rita returns with the rest and announces, "Already family, new plans, let's take a side trip to a famous diner by the lake and have a breakfast there. What do you say to that?"

"Yeah!" the Louds grunt, except for Lincoln who simply cheers in excitement.

"Wait, why you guys do gorilla sounds?" he asks.

Rita then tells him, "It's okay, Lincoln. You'll get the hang of it." She then kisses his scalp before she walks off with Lynn Sr. to their bedroom.

Lincoln just freezes in place, not able to contemplate the vibe he gets from his family.

Yet, Rita senses this and turns to Lincoln as climbs upstairs. And right into his eyes, she smirks darkly, raising her lips to reveal a twisted turn.

The sole male sibling of the Loud children gulps in hesitation. He could not distinguish what he can trust and what he can doubt.

Enter Rod Serling: " **We truly live in a world of duality. For better or worse, they would have to involve the opposite poles of a spectrum. No one has the right to ignore it, nor forget it. For when the time comes, one will outweigh the other. Like in this case, when we fail to acknowledge our demons, they find the perfect time to resurface…from the Twilight Zone.** "


End file.
